The Starfish Story: You Can Make a Difference

The following is one of my favourite stories (author unknown) that never fails to inspire me in sustaining my belief in what I do as a Christ-follower, regardless of how insignificant it may seem to the eyes of others.

While walking along a beach, an elderly gentleman saw someone in the distance leaning down, picking something up and throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, picking up starfish one by one and tossing each one gently back into the water.

He came closer still and called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”

The old man smiled, and said, “I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”

To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the elderly observer commented, “But, young man, do you not realise that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

The young man listened politely. Then he bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it into the back into the ocean past the breaking waves and said, “It made a difference for that one.”

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About andrewong2024

I'm just your regular guy who is in pursuit of his purpose in life. And life it seems, is a spiritual journey towards self-completion that ultimately leads one towards a lifestyle of service for the betterment of our society. This blog is entails that journey.

Ok. This short story reminds me of Frankenstein. For all of you who never bothered to actually read the book, I’ll sum it up. Frankenstein is pretty much a warning about the dangers of going too far for what you want. Basically be careful about your actual intentions, because even the best intentions can go awry.
Now… why does this story remind me of Frankenstein?
The reason is simple, scroll up and look at the picture made. This is a real starfish on a fake ocean setting. The only problem is it’s a dead starfish. One of the many starfish which was not saved. Why was it not saved? For no reason but to create a lovely setting for this story. You have a wonderful story about making a difference and doing something for a good reason. Now, what is it’s purpose now? It’s dead and for nothing more than for the story.
Such a wonderful reason for putting to death a wonderful creature.
It’s like killing a baby seal and wearing a baby seal coat while hosting a meeting about how terrible it is to take advantage of defenseless creatures.
It’s the complete opposite of the kids attempt.
The intention was to save them to make a difference.Now they are dying en masse to satisfy people who want to post a dead starfish on the wall next to this story.
It’s seems sweet until you see the end effect.
The boy respects life. His actions and his intentions respect life. Yours don’t.

On a different note perhaps you should check out slave/master. It’s an interesting philosophy

the slave feels that intentions serves the people the best/ master feels that the outcome serves the people the best.

If we are going to put god in this discussion, why don’t you ask yourself:
Would he be happier at your intentions based on the story? or is he looking for the outcome based on the story?

It’s great to have decent intentions, but if those intentions help no one, save nothing, make no difference whatsoever… then what’s the point?

It’s like the creation of christianity.
The intention was to honor god and his creation, ‘life, the universe and everything’.
Unfortunately, the actual outcome hasn’t quite gone to plan has it?
I guess that’s the real problem with christianity isn’t it?
You put all of your effort into making a great second life for yourself, and no effort into improving your own life.

Like James quoted the Bible, God intend salvation for all men – that is God’s godwill. But you know like picking starfish – you can only do your best. The thing is there is time for every thing. Force your way through, is no point.

Great story, works well at a spiritual level – but not political! These days is seems that the human race isn’t managing to organize itself in ways that do good for large numbers of people. Our voluntary efforts can make a difference but only to a point. For example, they won’t solve global warming.

I was planning to use this one for my VBS this summer. As I was reading the comments, I just wanted to say that, yes one person can make a difference; in sharing Christ, and in other aspects of life. Just like the older gentleman, people do see what you do and some even try to imitate you. If it’s global warming you are concerned about, then do your part, people will follow.

Sounds like people are focusing on the great man
doing a great job…………I agree………….
We need also remember THE STARFISH………the one someone is helping………..There lies the saved, or helped life: it does make a difference to
him/her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let’s all keep on helping !!! !!! !

I feel the same, this summer I decided to collect all the plastic from the beach, put them in a plastic bag and thake them away from the ocean and the beach, I made a difference for the beach Xpuha in Mexico for 15 days.
I will do the same in every beach I will go and only myself would save tones of lifes!!!

I am an active volunteer with an animal rescue group. Sometimes I get discouraged that I am only able to help a few animals, versus the huge numbers of animals that I can’t help. In this story, I am the person picking up the starfish and the starfish are the animals I have rescued. I always feel better after I read it.

Guys, I am sorry, I feel you are missing the point. This story is not about God, Jesus, Muhamad, Moshe, Abraham or what you feel, how the story mekes you feel or what kind of person it makes you believe you are. It is about saving the starfish for the sake of the starfish, not yours or your religion.
Forget all, save the starfish, move on. No glory, no speech.

According to God’s word, we are our brother’s keeper. This is a metaphor that lets us know we can make a difference in the lives of other people. It might not be religous, but it is the behavior of a person who is Christ-like.

I’m an atheist and I spend a lot of time helping people and trying to make a difference. Just because you are a christ follower doesn’t mean you get a free ticket of automatically being good and helpful.

No, Christine, this behavior existed before Jesus, it exists in places where peone have not heard of Jesus, and it will continue to exist, whether the story of Jesus is there or not. It’s called “being a good person” and it’s a mandate in all religions.

Fascinating blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple tweeks would really make my blog jump out. Please let me know where you got your theme. Thank you

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